Sacrifice Your Isaac

The death of Christ, brought forth by an eternal Spirit, will always be active as long as the flesh exists. The Spirit baptizes into one body and later brings forth death in that same body. In Christ’s body, the promptings of the Spirit unto death were so hidden from the disciples that they were not able to understand when Jesus spoke about it. The work of the Spirit in Christ had not yet been completed, so that it could have an effect on others. It was for their benefit that He went away, so that the Helper could be liberated from the flesh of Christ and be sent to testify to the sacrifice that was made to bring reconciliation and salvation to the world.

Jesus suffered, being tempted, and He suffered when the disciples did not understand Him. He Himself was the sacrifice and could not be comforted by human beings. God had to send angels to comfort Him. He didn’t have a forerunner; He Himself was the forerunner. That is why no one could show Him the way; He Himself became the way.

The way has now been opened and made ready; the sacrifices, the blood, the fire, the comfort, and the glory are now in the body, ready for all those who are willing to follow.

In the midst of his sacrificial ministry, Paul was able to rejoice over being understood, which was truly a great privilege. He says, “Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.” Phil. 2:17.

Paul lived his life in the body of Christ. He says, “For to me, to live is Christ.” He found everything that pertained to life and godliness within this body. The tribulations of Christ were abundant, yet the comfort was also abundant. He was a servant of the Spirit. The Spirit that he served always drew from those things that belonged to Christ. Then, when Paul was being poured out as a drink offering in his sacrifice and service to others, he was able to rejoice over every person who became a partaker of the glory together with him, within the same body, where he carried out his service for the Spirit.

This was not granted to Jesus. He suffered patiently for the joy that was set before Him, and He looked forward to His departure, because then the Helper would be able to come and speak about those things that people could not comprehend in the days of His flesh.

We can rejoice together in the fellowship of the Spirit, while Jesus was not able to rejoice in the fellowship of the Spirit with any other person, because the Father had not yet sent the Holy Spirit. This intensified His sufferings and increased His desire to depart.

In the days of His flesh, Jesus maintained fellowship with the Father without us, and He requires in return that we give up all carnal fellowship to obtain that fellowship which He shares with His Father. That is why John says, “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3-4.

Therefore, if anyone desires to have perfect joy, he must relinquish all carnal fellowship in order to obtain fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

This fellowship is obtained through the obedience of the faith, and it binds us, through eternal power, to the Father, who has promised to bestow upon us His wealth of goodness in Jesus Christ in the ages to come.

The reason we offer ourselves in our sacrifice and service, and the reason we present others’ faith as an offering, is so that we can do our part as a member of His body, unto His honor. One day He will say, “Here am I, and the children whom God has given Me.” Christ brought forth all this glory without us, but He still made us partakers of it. For this reason, all of our honor belongs to Him, since it is written that our boasting is excluded. By what law? By the law of faith! Rom. 3:27. And the righteous shall live by faith.

Paul presented the faith of others as a sacrifice. In all his work he sought to present a pure virgin to Christ. He did not bind anyone to his own flesh, but he said, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?” This is what it means to present the faith of others as a sacrifice. We must allow those whom we win for Christ to go to Christ, instead of using all kinds of bonds to bind them to ourselves for the sake of gain.

We will experience what Paul meant when he wrote about being a sacrifice when we offer unto Christ those whom we have won for Him. However, in the resurrection we will regain everything we have sacrificed. That is why the apostle says: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?”

We offer ourselves within the body, and we sacrifice what we gain. We do all of this so that the life of Christ will be manifested in our mortal flesh. Abraham received Isaac by his faith; yet by faith he in turn sacrificed his Isaac, so that all carnal bonds, which are temporal, could be broken and eternal bonds could be formed. Isaac was returned to him as one risen from the dead—no longer as a temporal son, but as an eternal one, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” Heb. 11:18.

If a person offers the Isaac he has received, he will be safely preserved in the body, which is the church, through the mutual help that God supplies. However, if Isaac is not sacrificed, people have to exert a lot of energy to create churches and fences in order to keep him bound. Isaac was born to be free and cannot thrive as a prisoner under the eyes of guards inside carnal, self-made churches. That is also why we see that many of these Isaacs escape when they are convinced that there is something better. Their captors are left standing there, speechless in dismay, wondering how things will end up when such people are freed from these empty forms and carnal protections. And yet, everything goes just fine; just let Isaac go. We have been baptized with one Spirit to be one body (church). God has not created any other church. However, people have created many other churches, where these “Isaacs,” who they have won, are split up into parties and are stamped with a name corresponding to the party that has won them over according to the flesh.

We understand that more of this mind is needed: to be a sacrifice and to sacrifice those you win.

You might ask: “But are we not to take care of those we win for the Lord? Should we just let them go their own way?”

No, but we are to serve our Lord and Master in such a way that on that Day, He will be able to say, “I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” We are to serve the life of Christ that is in them. However, since this life is spiritual, it cannot be served by good intentions that are only human. You have to sacrifice the Isaac that you have won if you are to serve him with things of eternal worth. As someone who is a sacrifice, you can free yourself from everyone and make yourself the servant of all. If you are not a sacrifice, then you only serve those whom you have won and whom you consider to be your own with all the disservice that the flesh can come up with, no matter how well-intended.

If you recognize yourself in this mirror, do not go away and forget what you look like; instead, let go of your Isaac and free yourself from everyone. Perhaps God will have mercy on you and, in His time, will make you an effective worker in His service. Now, however, with your religious care and striving, you are binding and attaching many souls to yourself instead of binding them to Christ.